The COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge for everyone, but particularly for nursing homes, care homes, and senior living facilities. With a high density of vulnerable residents, an outbreak of the virus can be deadly in these locations.
As part of the CES 2021 virtual event, CarePredict, specialists in senior care technology, gave insight into its latest contact tracing product, PinPoint.
Contact Tracing in Close Quarters
The pandemic has claimed many lives worldwide, with a significant proportion having been exposed to the virus through their living arrangements. Generally speaking, the most at-risk groups—the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions—are also those most likely to be living in nursing homes and senior living facilities.
Consequently, it is crucial to prevent an outbreak in any of these areas. One of the most challenging tasks, once a resident is known to have been infected, is to trace that resident’s contacts effectively and to identify those who may have been exposed.
This task has been a challenge for governments worldwide but is made more complicated by the ease of contact within these shared living facilities. CarePoint’s AI-based PinPoint aims to help staff identify at-risk residents, effectively contact trace within the facility, and put together a containment plan to prevent the spread.
What Is PinPoint?
Traditional contact tracing relies on manual intervention, so once a person tests positive, tracers work to analyze the person’s movements, identify contacts, and advise them to isolate.
PinPoint offers an automatic means of contact tracing through the use of the CarePredict Tempo wearable. Each resident is provided one of these devices, and an indoor location tracking system identifies where a resident has been in the facility.
The wearables also offer a means of recording how long each user has been in contact with another person, whereabouts in the property, and where they then moved.
If someone were to test positive for the virus, then staff can access these records and use them to adjust care for those who have been exposed. In this way, PinPoint is not entirely dissimilar to how government-approved contract tracing apps work.
Importantly, as the system also tracks where infected residents have been, the AI-based software creates a decontamination plan for the facility. This is important as the virus can live on surfaces for some time, so deep cleaning is essential to prevent ongoing transmission throughout the residential space.
The Future of Contact Tracing?
Privacy advocates may, rightly, question whether inserting potentially invasive technology into these locations is acceptable. It’s been all too common throughout the pandemic for our privacy to have been eroded in the name of public health.
At the same time, with cases continuing to rise worldwide, it’s clear that we must intervene to minimize the spread of the virus and protect those most at risk. CarePredict’s PinPoint could seem excessive, but if it can break the virus’s transmission and prevent severe illness or death, it may be worth the cost.